2026 Tesla Model S
The 2026 Tesla Model S is sold in the U.S. as an electric large hatchback with 3 EPA-rated configurations. Its longest-range version, the Model S, is EPA-rated at 410 miles with 124 MPGe combined efficiency. NHTSA lists no recall campaigns for this model year so far (Safety Signal A). Owners have filed 7 complaints, most often about the forward collision avoidance. Manufacturer pricing runs from $109,990 to $159,420 across 3 trims.
| Trim | Powertrain | Drive | MSRP | HP | Cargo (2nd row) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model S Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive | Electric | AWD | $109,990 | 670 hp | 28 cu-ft |
| Model S Plaid | Electric | AWD | $124,990 | 1020 hp | 28 cu-ft |
| Model S Signature Edition | Electric | AWD | $159,420 | — | — |
MSRP excludes destination. Open a trim for the complete spec sheet and standard/optional equipment. Have the car in front of you? Decode its VIN to see which of these trims it is and what it was priced at.
Specs & fuel economy
Source: EPA fueleconomy.gov| Configuration | Powertrain | Drive | Engine / motor | City | Hwy | Comb | Range | kWh/100mi | Charge (240V) | Annual fuel* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model S | Electric | AWD | 243 and 248 kW ACPM 3-Phase | 132 | 116 | 124 MPGe | 410 mi | 27.1 | 9.7 h | $600 |
| Model S Plaid | Electric | AWD | 250 kW ACPM 3-Phase | 114 | 105 | 110 MPGe | 368 mi | 30.6 | 12 h | $700 |
| Model S Plaid (21in wheels) | Electric | AWD | 250 kW ACPM 3-Phase | 97 | 89 | 93 MPGe | 309 mi | 36.2 | 12 h | $800 |
*EPA estimate at 15,000 miles/year at EPA reference fuel and electricity prices. fueleconomy.gov record ids: 49741, 49742, 50252.
The cheapest ownership win
Insurers price the 2026 Model S very differently, and the gap between the best and worst quote on the same car and driver is usually larger than any option you are weighing on this page.
How to compare cover →Affiliate disclosure: some links on this page are affiliate links. If you request a quote or buy through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Nothing on this page changes because of it.
Recalls (0)
Source: NHTSA recall databaseNo NHTSA recall campaigns are on file for the 2026 Tesla Model S. New campaigns appear here within a week of NHTSA posting them.
These are vehicle campaigns — the ones the automaker filed against this model. NHTSA also records equipment recalls, filed by a parts maker against a component (a tyre, a child seat, an aftermarket part), and those are not listed here or counted above. nhtsa.gov/recalls shows both for a VIN.
NHTSA defect investigations
Electrical System:Adas — FSD Collisions in Reduced Roadway Visibility Conditions open
The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) is opening this Engineering Analysis to evaluate Tesla’s Full Self Driving Beta and Full Self Driving (Supervised) (collectively, FSD) degradation detection system. The focus of this investigation will be to assess the system’s ability, when encountering reduced roadway visibility conditions, to detect degradation and alert the driver with sufficient time to respond. ODI will evaluate the performance of FSD in degraded roadway conditions and the updates or modifications by Tesla to the degradation detection system, including the timing, purpose, and capabilities of the updates, and Tesla’s assessment of their safety impact. Tesla’s FSD is an advanced
Opened Mar 18, 2026 · action EA26002 · the investigation’s page →
Hear about a recall before the letter does
The manufacturer’s letter is the last step of a recall: it has up to 60 days after filing to mail owners, at the address on the registration. We email you the day NHTSA posts a recall on the 2026 Tesla Model S, with what to do next. Nothing else, ever — no newsletter, no marketing, one-click unsubscribe in every message.
Parts & accessories for the 2026 Tesla Model S
Search by fitment on eBay Motors — OEM take-offs, aftermarket, and the trim pieces dealers no longer stock. The listing and the price are the seller's.
Find parts for this Model S →Owner complaints
Source: NHTSA complaint database1 involved a crash · 1 a fire · 1 injuries · 0 deaths reported
7.4 per 10,000 built · Tesla reported 9,460 Model S built (its Early Warning production report to NHTSA)
Filed per year: 2025: 2 · 2026: 5
Most-cited components
In owners' own words
Filed with NHTSA by the people who own these cars, one per problem area. Quoted as written, with anything identifying removed.
Speed profiles don't adhere to actual speed limits. Speed can be higher or lower than posted. I can be driving in a 55mph speed zone and it will drop to 35 then accelerate to 65.
COMPONENT: The rear window glass has optical distortion in the zone viewed through the interior rearview mirror. Vehicles behind me visibly warp and change apparent size as they move across the affected area of the glass. The vehicle and component are available for inspection upon request.
Subject: Safety Concern—Model S Plaid Rear Tire Wear I am submitting a formal complaint regarding severe premature wear on the inside edges of both rear tires on my Model S Plaid\. I have owned the vehicle since XXX, and it has only 11,980 miles\.
Car will just brake on the highway with out warning. Cruise control will just randomly change speeds. I was traveling on an overpass and speed dropped to 35 then jumped to 60mph
Supervised FSD does not have a remedy if it assigns an incorrect speed limit to the current roadway. The only action available is to disengage FSD. This incorrect speed limit happens quite often, especially in construction zones with temporary speed limit changes.
Complaint counts are raw owner reports to NHTSA, not verified defects, and scale with how many were sold. Use them to spot patterns, not to rank.
Crash ratings
Source: NHTSA NCAP| Configuration | Overall | Frontal | Side | Rollover | Rollover risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 HB AWD | not rated | not rated | not rated | ★★★★★ | 6% |
NHTSA New Car Assessment Program.
Driver-assist crash reports (8)
Source: NHTSA Standing General Order 2021-018 severity unknown
Oct 2025 to Sep 2026 · 8 with an air bag deployment · 0 towed
What was engaged, and what was hit
System named: not named in the filings
Crash partner: Other 4 · Unknown 3 · Passenger Car 1
Filed by: Tesla, Inc.
| Incident | System | Struck | Injury alleged | State | Speed | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2026 | Level 2 | Passenger Car | unknown | NV | 13 mph | 13781-16565 |
| Jun 2026 | Level 2 | Unknown | unknown | GA | 32 mph | 13781-15515 |
| May 2026 | Level 2 | Other | unknown | CA | 13 mph | 13781-15218 |
| Mar 2026 | Level 2 | Other | unknown | LA | 45 mph | 13781-14409 |
| Feb 2026 | Level 2 | Unknown | unknown | CA | 33 mph | 13781-14190 |
| Feb 2026 | Level 2 | Unknown | unknown | CA | — | 13781-14126 |
| Nov 2025 | Level 2 | Other | unknown | NM | 44 mph | 13781-13296 |
| Oct 2025 | Level 2 | Other | unknown | AZ | 49 mph | 13781-11969 |
A report under the General Order is a notice the manufacturer or operator must file within days of hearing of a crash in which a Level 2 driver-assist or automated-driving system was engaged within 30 seconds of impact. It is filed before anything is verified, and entities with telematics hear of far more crashes than entities that rely on complaints, so counts say as much about the reporting as about the car and are not comparable across makes. Nothing is normalised by fleet size. Every report on file, by make and year → · NHTSA’s page and files
Service bulletins & campaigns
Source: NHTSA manufacturer communicationsMost often about: Unknown Or Other.
- SB-26-18-001 Service bulletin2026-02-04 · Unknown Or Other
- On some Model S and Model X vehicles, the compression gap of the HVAC drain funnel seal is wider than intended, which may cause water ingress. Inspect the sponge area of the HVAC drain funnel for water ingress. If water ingress is present, rework the HVAC drain funnel seal.
A service bulletin is the manufacturer telling its dealers how to diagnose or repair a known condition. It is not a recall, not a finding that the vehicle is defective, and the work is not automatically free — though a bulletin is often what a dealer works from when you describe a symptom, so quoting the document number can save a diagnosis. The count is every communication filed; the list shows the most recent, one entry per campaign, because a single campaign is usually filed as several documents on the same day. The summaries are NHTSA's; the full documents come from the manufacturer.
Compare the 2026 Model S with
Any vehicle, your weights →| Head-to-head | Verdict | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 Acura Integra · Large Hatchback · grade A | Integra +17.9 | |
| 2026 Porsche Panamera · Large Hatchback · grade B | Model S +34.2 |
Model S by model year
all years, side by side →Common questions about the 2026 Model S
Source: EPA, NHTSA and manufacturer press kitsHow much does the 2026 Tesla Model S cost?
Manufacturer pricing runs from $109,990 for the Model S Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive AWD to $159,420 for the Model S Signature Edition AWD, across 3 trims. Those are MSRPs from the manufacturer's own press material; they exclude destination, options, taxes and whatever the dealer adds. Every trim and price is listed above.
Does the 2026 Tesla Model S have any recalls?
No NHTSA recall campaigns are on file for the 2026 Tesla Model S. New campaigns appear here within a week of NHTSA posting them, and a clean sheet on a recent model year often just means the vehicle is new.
How safe is the 2026 Tesla Model S?
NHTSA has not published a crash-test rating for the 2026 Tesla Model S yet. On the recall record WhichTrim grades it A (100/100), which measures open and severe recalls rather than crash protection.
What is the fuel economy of the 2026 Tesla Model S?
Across the 3 EPA-rated configurations of the 2026 Tesla Model S, the longest EPA range is 410 miles on a charge. Figures are the EPA's own, per configuration, and every one is listed above.
What do owners complain about on the 2026 Tesla Model S?
Owners have filed 7 complaints with NHTSA about the 2026 Tesla Model S, most often about unspecified, forward collision avoidance, vehicle speed control. Of those, 1 involved a crash, 1 a fire, 1 reported injuries. Complaints are unverified owner reports, so treat the pattern as a signal and the individual report as an anecdote.
Are there service bulletins for the 2026 Tesla Model S?
The manufacturer has filed 1 service bulletin and related communication with NHTSA for the 2026 Tesla Model S, most often covering unknown or other. The most recent is dated 2026-02-04. A bulletin is not a recall: it is the repair procedure a manufacturer sends its dealers for a condition it knows about, and the work is not automatically paid for. It is still worth knowing — if the symptom matches, quoting the bulletin number at the service desk can save a diagnosis. The document numbers and summaries are listed above.
Which 2026 Tesla Model S trim is the best value?
$49,430 separates the cheapest of the 3 trims from the most expensive, so the answer depends on which of the differences you would actually use. Every trim has its own page here with the manufacturer's full specification and equipment list, plus a short summary of exactly what it adds over the base trim — worth reading before a dealer frames the walk-up for you. The trim-by-trim ladder shows what every step up costs and what it makes standard.
Is the 2026 Tesla Model S better than the 2026 Acura Integra?
The Acura Integra wins clearly, 78.7 to 60.8, on tech & comfort, price, safety. The Tesla Model S is ahead on fuel & range and performance. We publish a full side-by-side of the 2026 Tesla Model S against the 2026 Acura Integra — specifications by family, equipment feature by feature, safety record and ownership costs. You can re-weight what matters to you and the verdict recalculates.
What we hold, and what an empty row means
Paid vehicle-history reports will not tell you the difference between “nothing happened to this car” and “we never received that record” — both of the big two say as much in their own help pages. Most of what is on this page comes from complete federal registers, so we can tell you which is which, row by row.
| Data | Held | Source | What it covers — or what empty means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fuel economy & configurations | 3 configurations | EPA certification records | Every configuration the EPA certified for sale, with its own test figures. |
| Emission certificates | none | EPA emission certificates | The EPA published no certificate we could match to a configuration on this page. |
| Recalls | none | NHTSA recall campaigns | No campaign has been filed. Because the register is complete, an empty row here means there is nothing to find — not that we are missing it. |
| Owner complaints | 7 | NHTSA complaint database | Also complete, but unverified: these are reports owners filed, not findings. Counts scale with how many were sold. |
| Crash ratings | 1 tested | NHTSA NCAP | Only the configurations NHTSA chose to crash-test, which is never all of them. |
| Service bulletins | 1 | NHTSA manufacturer communications | Everything the manufacturer told its dealers about a defect or malfunction, short of a recall. |
| Investigations | 1 | NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation | Open and closed defect investigations, with the agency's own narrative. |
| Driver-assist crash reports | 8 | NHTSA Standing General Order 2021-01 | Crashes the manufacturer or operator reported with a Level 2 or automated-driving system engaged. Notices, filed before verification; not comparable across makes. |
| Specifications filed with NHTSA | none | NHTSA vPIC, decoded from VIN patterns | We had no VIN pattern to decode for this model year, or the manufacturer filed nothing usable. |
| Trims, pricing & equipment | 3 trims | Manufacturer press kit | Transcribed from the manufacturer's own press material, every value carrying the document it came from. |
Rebuilt nightly; this page was generated 2026-10-26. Every figure above is traceable to the source named beside it, and the JSON for this page carries the same values with their identifiers.
Sources & method
Safety Signal starts every model-year at 100 and subtracts points per open NHTSA recall campaign by severity: critical 15 (fire risk, park-outside or do-not-drive advisories), high 8 (brakes, steering, airbags, loss of drive power, structure, battery), moderate 6, minor 3 (software, labels, lighting fixed by an update). The most serious recall counts in full and each further one counts 85% of the one before, because a vehicle sold in millions is recalled more often than a rare one without being more dangerous — and because a flat subtraction bottomed the scale out, scoring a vehicle with 22 recalls within a point of one with six. A ≥ 90, B ≥ 80, C ≥ 70, D ≥ 60, otherwise F. Read it as what it counts: recall campaigns on the federal record, weighted by severity. The damping reduces the sales bias by roughly 40% but does not remove it: like our complaint counts, this is not normalized by how many were sold, so a best-seller still scores somewhat worse than an obscure model with the same real risk. NHTSA crash ratings, do-not-drive and park-outside advisories, and the crash, fire, injury and death counts in owner complaints are reported separately on every page and never blended into the letter — a vehicle can hold five stars and a poor letter at once, and where that happens we say so rather than leave you to notice. Because the scale subtracts from a clean sheet, a model year too new to have been recalled, complained about or bulletined scores full marks on an empty record; we label those grades provisional rather than present them as earned.
EPA figures come from fueleconomy.gov vehicle records. Recalls, complaints, investigations and crash ratings come from NHTSA's public flat files, refreshed nightly. Trim-level specifications and pricing are transcribed from the manufacturer's official press kit; every value carries its source in the data file.